Why does the professor recommend that students pay attention to the people they see every day?

题目对应文本：

To begin, how do we create fictional characters? We don't just pull them from thin air, do we? I mean we don't create them out of nothing.We base them, consciously or unconsciously, we base them on real people, or we blend several people's traits, their attributes into one character.//But when people think fiction, they may assume the characters come from the author's imagination.But the writer's imagination is influenced by... by real people. Could be anyone, （定位句）so pay attention to the people you meet, (someone in class, at the gym, that guy who is always sitting in the corner of the coffee house, um... your cousin, who's always getting into dangerous situations.We're pulling from reality, gathering bits and pieces of real people. You use these people, and the bits of behavior or characteristics as a starting point as you begin to sketch out your characters.)

题目解析：

这道题一看题干就知道是一道细节题，问的是教授为什么建议学生去关注日常所遇到的人们。我们看到在定位词so之前，其实答案已经说过两遍，即我们的小说人物来自于真实的人物，定位句之后又出现了real people, these people两遍。所以我们大约有四次机会反复理解文中的这一个细节。也就是说，我们漏掉段落中间的某一句或某几句其实影响不大，只要听懂这一整个段落在讲一件事即“虚构的文学作品的人物原型哪里来？”就可以啦。

所以答案是A。

What does the professor imply is one problem with the climate change theory?

题目对应文本：

Again, we have what at first seems like a pretty attractive theory…But then, how do you explain the fact that this had happened before— you know, global cooling followed by global warming— and there was no extinction then…

题目解析：

文中先提出了climate change 这一假说，乍一看似乎是个不错的理论，但是你如何解释这种气候变化之前曾发生过而恐龙当时并未发生灭绝现象？欲扬先抑，先让步后转折，典型的转折推理题，说明教授不相信这个假说，持有怀疑的态度。

因此答案为B。

What does the professor imply about theories that explain how albatross navigate?

题目对应文本：

PROFESSOR:Good point. And the truth is, we are not sure. It's very difficult to keep seabirds in captivity（可排除选项A）, where you can study them, and it’s very difficult to study them in the wild（可排除选项B）, you know.
But we think that a lot of what we've learned about songbirds probably applies to seabirds as well. So we're thinking that albatross could make use of two different kinds of “compasses,” if you will: a magnetic compass and a celestial compass.

题目解析：

But出现前，教授铺垫了好多遍，我们Not sure, it is difficult等信息，但是but后提供的才是真正的重点信息，即：我们对于songbirds的了解信息可能可以应用于seabirds。所以but前的信息可用于排除选项A和B， 选项C显然过于绝对化了，不是没有基于任何鸟类研究呀。

所以答案只能是D，符合原文BUT后的描述，我们对于songbirds的信息可能也适用于seabirds。

According to the professor, why did John Pintard promote the commemoration of the three hundredth anniversary of Columbus' landing?

题目对应文本：

Student:But why Columbus? And why then?

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Well, to Pintard, it was a way to build patriotism in the young, politically fractured country. （下文是对前面观点句的具体解释，或者说历史背景的补充Remember, the United States had only declared its independence from Britain 16 years earlier and had yet to form a national identity. Pintard also had a hand in helping to create Independence Day-July fourth-as a national holiday.So you see that he was very involved in creating sort of a "national story" for Americans.And Columbus ... he felt Columbus could become a story that Americans could tell each other about their national origins that was outside of the British colonial context. The United States was in search of a national identity, and its people wanted heroes.）

题目解析：

学生提出问题，为什么选择哥伦布？为什么选择那时候（在哥伦布登陆美洲300年后去纪念他的landing）？教授对此要进行回答，所以回答的第一句话就是本题目的答案，是为了这个年轻又风雨飘摇的国家建立patriotism爱国主义精神。并在本段展开部分多次提到national identity民族身份, national origins 民族起源，heroes英雄等，这些都和patriotism在主线上是呼应的。

所以答案比较直接，选A。